Software Prototype for Optimization of Monitoring and Data Logging in Water Distribution Systems

Collecting field data is a vital task for efficiently managing and operating a water distribution system. A field data collection program can be long-term permanent monitoring and/or short-term data logging for capturing hydraulic (pressures and flows) and water quality characteristics. The challenge for water utilities is to determine how many and where to place the data loggers, which hydrant and how many hydrants to flush for flow test, where and how many water quality sensors needs to be placed in a system. This paper reports the development of a unified method and an integrated software prototype for optimizing pressure logger placement, hydrant selection for flow test and conventional flushing, and water quality sensor placement, and also elaborates on the application of the tool for each type of data collection optimizations. It is illustrated that the tool is easy to use and the methods are effective for practitioners to come up with a technically sound field data collection program that can be long-term permanent monitoring or short-term data logging, hydrant flow testing and conventional flushing.